A court in Assam on Tuesday summoned Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on September 29 in a criminal defamation case filed by Assam chief minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Sarma had filed the case on July 1 after AAP leader Sisodia accused the former of having indulged in corruption by awarding contracts of PPE kits to companies linked to his wife during the first wave of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
Assam advocate general Devajit Saikia told the media that the chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup, has directed Sisodia to appear before the court on September 29 in connection with the criminal defamation case filed by Sarma, who was then the state health minister.Sarma has already appeared before the court on August 5, in connection with the case.
Sisodia, a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader, is presently facing the heat from the CBI which is probing alleged irregularities in formulating and executing the Delhi Excise Policy 2020-21. His residence was raided last week in connection with the case.Sisodia had levelled the allegations against Sarma at a news conference in Delhi on June 4.
Before Sarma, his wife — Riniki Bhuyan Sarma — had filed a Rs 100 crore civil defamation case against Sisodia. Both Sarma and his wife have denied the allegations which Sisodia had levelled based on reports carried jointly by a news website based in Delhi and a web portal based out of Guwahati.
Sarma had tweeted: “The company in question wrote to Assam’s NHM stating that supply of around 1,500 PPE kits for Covid warriors must be treated as CSR contribution and hence not a single rupee must be paid by Govt.”Sarma added: “Assam NHM duly acknowledged the same. Manish bhai, this is not corruption, it’s humanity. My wife hasn’t committed a crime, she tried to help Assam at the time of its biggest crisis. Throwing muck at others will not be accepted. You will face legal consequences.”
The Assam unit of the Aam Aadmi Party had on June 6 lodged a complaint with the police seeking registration of a criminal case in connection with the alleged irregularities in the purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and sanitisers during March-April 2020 when Sarma was the health minister.
Himanta Biswa Sarma
The AAP had also sought Sarma’s resignation and moved the governor for a probe into the allegations. AAP state-coordinator Bhaben Choudhury had then told The Telegraph that they wanted a thorough probe into the allegations of wrongdoing, including favouring companies linked to the chief minister’s wife and those of his son’s business partners and buying PPE kits and sanitisers at inflated prices. Assam government spokesperson and minister Pijush Hazarika had also dismissed the allegations against the chief minister’s family over procurement of PPE kits, accusing the two news websites of “spreading fake and baseless news”.
The minister had said nobody in this world was aware of how to deal with the pandemic in the early days.
“At that time the whole world was in requirement of PPE kits and PPE kits were not manufactured in India then. So the government had to accept PPE kits from any source,” he said.Hazarika also said the government could “not” follow all necessary procedures during an emergency situation.“A cabinet decision was taken to form an expert committee to approve the procurement of necessary items related to Covid-19 based on nomination. And on that basis, 35 firms were given orders for providing PPE kits. Few managed to deliver the order and few could not,” he said, adding orders of those who could not supply were cancelled.
